Currently, advertisers and media providers often test advertisements and other media programs prior to generally releasing the program. For example, a media provider may show small audiences a situation comedy after which the audience provides feedback through survey results or hand-tracked information logs. These surveys and logs, however, are often imprecise. The audience may not remember a funny joke at the third minute of a twenty-four-minute program, for example. And, even if the results include some precision, the size of the audience is typically small, which may not reliably indicate how the program will be received when generally released.
Media providers may also test programs through invasive biometric testing of an audience during presentation of the program in a controlled environment. This testing can be more precise, but the audience size is often much smaller than even survey and log testing. And, even this testing can be highly inaccurate due in part to the controlled environment in which the testing occurs—a person is less likely to laugh when in a sound room strapped to electrical testing devices than when relaxing in his or her home.
Furthermore, in either of these cases, the time-delay in altering a program can be substantial. It may take days or weeks to record a new program or alter a current program, and even when this is complete, the altered program may again be tested, further delaying release of the program.